9/12 Protests
Yesterday, somewhere between "tens of thousands" and "two million" people flooded the nation's capital to protest somethingoranother. Thousands Rally in Capital to Protest Big Government (Jeff Zeleny, NYT) [caption id="attachment_41802" align="alignright" width="400" caption="Amanda Lucidon for The New York Times"][/caption] A sea of protesters filled the west lawn of the Capitol and spilled onto the National Mall on Saturday in the largest rally against ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 13, 2009 07:57
Chuck Norris Calls for Revolution
Usually, when Chuck Norris speaks, the world listens. But this apparently does not hold true for when he writes columns for WorldNetDaily and goes on the Glenn Beck show -- in which it takes a couple days for anyone to notice. Ron Moore, for the DC Examiner: The call by some right wing leaders for rebellion and for the military to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 11, 2009 08:22
German High School Shooting
A shooting spree at a German high school has killed at least 10 people and wounded untold others. This tragedy will come as a shock to most in the United States, as our media treat rampages by gunmen as a uniquely American phenomenon made possible only by our lax firearms laws. AP's timeline, though, reveals only nine incidents in thirteen years, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on March 11, 2009 06:57
Black Friday Madness Madness
Two people were killed by gunplay at a California Toys R Us yesterday, joining the trampled Wal-Mart worker in New York. Naturally, this is bringing out condemnations of America's crazy appetite for stuff. Mark Silva: Lay a little blame at the feet of the government, for exhorting Americans to spend more money and shake off that recession gripping the nation. Lay some ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on November 29, 2008 08:18
Mahdi Army Transforming into Salvation Army?
The Mahdi Army might soon be the Iraqi equivalent of the Salvation Army, Gina Chon reports for the Wall Street Journal. Anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr -- long a thorn in the side of the U.S. military and Iraqi government -- intends to disarm his once-dominant Mahdi Army militia and remake it as a social-services organization. The transformation would represent a significant turnabout ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 5, 2008 12:14
Heller Denied D.C. Gun Permit
Dick Heller, the plaintiff in the landmark Supreme Court decision that overturned Washington, D.C.'s 32-year-old ban on handguns and established that the 2nd Amendment provided an individual right to own guns, was denied a handgun permit by the District yesterday. He was among the first in line Thursday morning to apply for a handgun permit. But when he tried to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 18, 2008 05:34
D.C. Bans Guns with Red Tape
The District of Columbia has made it legal for residents to own a handgun after being so ordered by the United States Supreme Court. But they're not making it easy. The plaintiff in the Supreme Court case that overturned Washington's strict 32-year-old handgun ban was among the first to arrive as the city started registering firearms. Dick Heller showed up early ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 17, 2008 11:51
Obama’s Surge Purge Emerges, Demonstrates Nerve, Verges on Scourge, Reactions Diverge
Barack Obama has taken things off his campaign site that might be used by opponents to embarrass him, James Gordon Meek reports in the NY Daily News under the headline "Obama Purges Web Critique of Surge." Why, it's our Outrage of the Day! Barack Obama's campaign scrubbed his presidential Web site over the weekend to remove criticism of the U.S. troop ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 15, 2008 12:27
Zoning Away the Constitution
Matt Yglesias points out that, the Supreme Court's historic ruling in Heller notwithstanding, DC residents still have no effective 2nd Amendment rights. As Rob Goodspeed explains it's all in the zoning. You can't legally buy a gun in DC because there are no gun stores here. And to sell a gun to an out-of-state resident, a gun shop needs to actually ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 14, 2008 12:36
Obama Plunges in Newsweek Poll!
Newsweek has released a new poll and is excited by the huge change: "Glow Fading? The latest NEWSWEEK Poll shows Barack Obama leading John McCain by only 3 points. What a difference a few weeks can make." This is quite amusing in that pretty much everyone agreed that the June 20th Newsweek poll was an outlier. No matter. In ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 12, 2008 06:56
More Language and Culture, Fewer Guns
Apropos our value of foreign languages discussion earlier, Andrew Krepinevich, a highly regarded military analyst, says the Pentagon needs to commit far more resources to just that. "If the experience of the last seventeen years tells us anything, it is that we are likely to continue to find our armed forces deployed... in operations among the indigenous populations, rather than around ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 9, 2008 15:33
Appalachian Election?
Steve Tuttle takes to the pages of Newsweek to proclaim the ascendency of Appalachia as the decider of the next president. "Hick." "Hillbilly." "Redneck." "Inbred." "Cracker." "Ridge Runner." I heard and self-effacingly used them all when I left the mountains of Appalachia to attend college in the great metropolis of Williamsburg, Va., in the '80s. I was mercilessly ribbed as a ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 30, 2008 09:20
Gun Control Irony Alert
Under the provocative headline "The Thugs Win the Case," WaPo columnist Colbert King sniffs of the Supreme Court's ruling yesterday in Heller, There's one group of District residents absolutely unfazed by today's U.S. Supreme Court ruling shooting down the District's strict handgun ban: the dudes who have been blowing away their fellow citizens with abandon since the law was put on ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 27, 2008 07:12
Female Gun Market?
Megan McArdle has some interesting thoughts on the Supreme Court's decision today overturning DC's handgun ban. As she readily admits, you can get better legal analysis elsewhere. This, however, is a unique contribution to the debate: There is a distressing lack of attention to the female market in gun companies. I want something with accuracy and stopping power, but ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 26, 2008 11:37
Activist Judges Overturn Democratic Process Again
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court has overturned the D.C. handgun ban, thwarting the democratic process.The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the District of Columbia cannot ban a citizen from keeping a handgun at home, throwing out one of the nation's strictest gun control laws. The Supreme Court has overturned Washington, D.C.'s strict gun ban.The 5-4 decision marks first ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 26, 2008 10:34
